Science: Searching for Superplants

"Plants are beautifully designed for reproduction," says Richard
Mahoney, "but their efficiency as providers of food is just lousy. They
never had any intention of feeding humanity." Yet Mahoney, chief of
Monsanto Co.'s agricultural products division, and other plant
biologists around the globe are all too aware that the world's
burgeoning population is ultimately dependent on plants for food. Their
solution: to lend nature a hand by 1) finding or creating new plants
that yield more food faster, harvest easier and better resist insects,
diseases and climatic extremes or 2) by manipulating...